A Black Friday (spits) ad for a certain London-based green bike shop just got me thinking of some bargains I’ve picked up.

When I say bargain, it’s something I’m viewing in two ways: something cheap, either in a sale or regularly priced, that’s a genuinely good bit of kit, or something that is amazing (and probably pricey) but you wouldn’t be without.

The one that kick-started my thought process is a Deuter Pulse 2 hip pack. £14 or so and bloody brilliant for those hour-long rides.

I could go on but I’m meant to be working, so I shall free up the thread for your bike-related bargains.

Exposure Six Pack from Evans for £279. If it lasts 8 years (and counting) like my old exposure enduro then it will be a bargain.

My mates old road bike for £250, has done about 5 years with me now and fowsands of miles

A couple of months ago now but got a few bits for my brakes:

£430 RRP of bits cost me £24 brand new 😀

Angleset for the Hemlock- £70 which wasn’t cheap for a headset, but meant I kept the bike for years longer than I would have otherwise.

MJ872 bike lights- I paid £60 for the first and £70 for the second, one just died this year but they’ve out-lamped lights costing 3 or 4 times as much. Fantastic kit.

Angleset for me

Gabba 2 jersey from Mantel for a whopping £68.

Got some other bits for the MTB dirt cheap, but that Gabba was a super bargain.

Serotta made ti frame for a couple of hundred.

No way could I afford it at full price. Live in fear of someone nicking it.

Altura pocket rocket for 20 quid (I think), to keep in my bag on the non-biblically raining days as a just in case waterproof. I haven’t had to use it all year. That is well worth 20 quid 😀

Monarch RT3 for £80 off of Rose Bikes
Flogged the Monarch R that came on the bike about a year before for ~£100

Sektors on it were due a service. Found a pair of Pikes at Planet X for £175. Flogged the old Sektors for £100

Shimano AM41 flatty shoes from Halfords for £22.

Bell Stoker lid, again from Halfords, £17.

Completely legit Oakley Flak Jackets for £19.99 from Eyewear Outlet (now Igero) due to them not cancelling a 50 quid off code when they dropped the price…

Assos base layer from Wiggle during their daily price drop sale. 70 quid rrp, got the last one for 22 quid and it is terrific.

Best bike bargain I’ve seen recently is probably the last few remaining 18″ Incline Alphas at Halfords for £360. Insane for a Raidon forked bike, the catch is Halfords are not offering delivery and I’m not sure if you can even ask them to transfer the bike to your local store.

For a bike more widely available, Go Outdoors have the Calibre Two Two v2 for £350.

On the whole, bike bargains have been few and far between over this last weekend, many so called sale prices have at best matched prices we have seen earlier this year.

I could understand cycle computers being in sales today, but not much else bike related. So many UK stores don’t seem to understand the concept of Cyber Monday!

On One thicky merino socks. I’ve tried Rapha, Castelli, Endura, Madison and these are as good – and sometimes better – and much cheaper.

That probikekit sale with 90% off stuff during the world cup final.. Git all sorts of jerseys, clothing, sidi shoes, for a fraction of what it usually sells for.
Just bought a kinesis hd cx wheelset and some shimano winter rw5 road shoes for £330

I got an on one inbred off the classifieds on here with a bottom bracket and cranks for £15

They’re all still going strong 😀

Brooks B17 for £23 or something silly, another Halfords clearance.

Buffs, free from magazine covers. DMR V8 pedals, they just keep on going, for nearly two decades for one pair of mine.

I bought a lezhyne mini gps for £39 from Wiggle last week. Thought that was a good deal as they rated well in the mag a few issues back and are £110 or £120 new RRP

crud race guard. probably 20+ years old and still going strong. Will fit it to the SS for winter at the weekend.

Reverb from Canyon for £108, still working two years later.

I got an on one inbred off the classifieds on here with a bottom bracket and cranks for £15

They saw you coming 😉

Bike workstand from Lidl – a grand total of £10. Perfect for the amount of fettling I do

My current bike and first full sus – a Vitus Blitz. RRP 5 years ago was £1699. Paid £850 as a CRC ‘recycled’ item which turned up as new except for a small paint chip on the underside of the downtube which you’d never even notice. It’s been faultless really and only had to replace consumables. Doesn’t owe me a penny and only just coming round to replace it.

Super light selle Italia carbon seat & post from wiggle for £70, ended up buying two.

1600g Tubeless Alex rims disc wheelset from superstar for £99.

Got both the above in January sales

My Vaude Bike18 rucksack. It cost not a lot, and refuses to wear out or be uncomfortable nearly 20 years later.

Mrs_oab’s Cannondale cost £225 at three years old, just serviced. It’s done over 12 years for us, finally retired as ‘dead’, worn out.

Last year MilletSports had a clear out sale. The Altura jackets for £12 and Altura baggies for £8 were rather a good deal.

Picked up a 2015 Alpine Five 3 weeks ago after looking for a Large for 18 months ,full Kashima and Renthal finishing kit

£950 more than over the moon new price was closer to £3400

My second hand Transition off here. Absolutely brilliant bit of kit for a great price.

2 pairs of Gore Windstopper cycling trousers for less than £15, as we were sent a load of Gore stuff to sell cheap on clearance. None of it even saw the shop floor. Shame i’ve misplaced the fluro yellow pair though 😀

Camelback mule ripoff from Aldi about 10 years ago. £9 and still going strong.

My Vaude Bike18 rucksack.

Do like Vaude kit. Like Deuter, happy to pay full price. Seems to last for aeons. I used a Deuter Bike25 and Bike12 while guiding – superb packs.

Recently more happy with my Wingnut MPS. Used and abused regularly in various guises and configurations (from guiding in the Austrian Alps to commuting round London), and must be eight-nine years old now and still going strong, complete with sewn-on add-ons. I know they’re a controversial item, but absolutely love mine.

New Urge helmet liners for £1.99 in latest CRC sale.

I got one of Trouties last Spider Eyes lights for half price because the Anodising was slightly off – doesn’t seem to show at night!!!!

Most of mine has been Specialized clothing, seems to just keep going.

My middle of the road Specialized road shoes, £108.00 new, but have covered over 15000 miles and still used on daily commute, helmet has also done the same distance, 2 pairs of Spec. gloves still going after 10000 miles. You don’t mind paying for something when it lasts so well.

Plus the Exposure Maxx-D i bought of here for £55 recently, great light for a great price

Decathlon tyre levers. have outlasted hundreds of others!

I also remembered – Alpkit socks. Great price, dead comfy and last for ages, unlike more expenses brands. Yes I’m looking at you Smartwool.

Troy Lee D3 Helmet – 50% off on CRC< got a 20% of Helmets voucher to work also, and a £10 off and a £5 off voucher all stacked on top

Basically got a £500 helmet for about £100

got some 26 inch rims of crc ,was watching them for ages to see if the price would go down started at £219 and last couple of months they been dropping in price , i was going to get them last month for £140 .
but held out and last week £89 looked on there offer discount and found a tenner off on clearance offer code .
so paid £79 saved 60+% , so good times.
and a Fox Racing OutFoxed Sasquatch Zip Hoodie – Grey £80 got for £14.39.
fur lined and warm as toast for winter ,top buy..

Formula RO brakeset for £103 earlier this year.

Aldi winter gloves are always a must buy too, £4 or so and last ages.

Superstar slackerizer for £40 is only a few weeks old but he’s transformed my Solo.

something cheap, either in a sale or regularly priced, that’s a genuinely good bit of kit

King of Shaves shaving oil bottle, repurposed as a miniature chain-lube bottle

something that is amazing (and probably pricey) but you wouldn’t be without.

Evoc bike bag

Due to a bug on a retailer’s website I got 250€ of clothing, front & rear Saint brakes (levers+calipers in box) and boxed shimano rotors for 20€. Some of the clothes weren’t the right size but never dared send them back so sold them on. Think I made 50€ or so from that.

Loads if you spend as much time looking at bike parts as I do

£15 helmets/tyres/shifters/mechs/brakes from CRC, time-bomb discount codes from Wiggle for spotting a pricing mistake, amazing Thomson/Rock Shox deals from Winstanleys, Troy Lee from Tweeks and stuff from Merlin where you think this can’t be right but it is 🙂

Think I made 50€ or so from that

I did that with my brake parts. Kept 3 new rotors for myself (one spare) and sold the other new one + my old ones for about £75 🙂